The future requires going back to a successful precedent

I recently attended an Aha Moku Council meeting. It was astounding, inspiring and promising. The individuals involved with the project have such wonderful mana‘o to share.

The Hawaiians who occupied this land had a outstanding way to manage their natural resources. Through their utmost dependence on preserving the land that nourished them, an innate respect for their terrestrial and marine brothers and sisters, constant observation and valuable generational knowledge, the Native Hawaiian people had an extensive species catalog, climactic understanding, geological awareness and whole-systems comprehension.

The concept of revitalizing traditional knowledge and applying it to the way we operate today and into the future is not new. What often stifles many inventive projects is a convoluted political process. Fortunately for those involved with the Aha Moku project, Rep. Mele Carroll had the confidence to bring this project to the Legislature.

This is just the beginning of a large-scale paradigm shift. This shift must incorporate creative resource management, innovative development models, diversified education, changes in attitude, political will and community empowerment.

The interaction of generational knowledge and scientific knowledge should be dialectical not oppositional. I would hope that we are evolved enough as a community that we can appreciate and honor the value in the ahupua‘a system.

The next Aha Moku Council will take place on Thursday, March 27, at 6 p.m. at the Mayor Hannibal Tavares Community Center in Pukalani.

Summer Starr

Olinda